June 6 (D-Day) New Hope E-News

Announcements

Special Guest—This Sunday, we'll have a special guest with us. Marilyn Borst from the Outreach Committee will be with us. She'll be preaching on Sunday morning about the church's call to look beyond itself and serve others. If you're interested in attending a luncheon to talk more with Marilyn about how New Hope might be involved in God's work beyond the bounds of our church, please email me.

Church Website—It's working again! Yay! Newhopechattanooga.org

Community Kitchen Spot

There are a lot of hungry and homeless children of God and the community needs some help feeding them. If you would like to help out, please bring the following items to church this Sunday & put them in the grocery cart.

8 oz. Styrofoam bowls

Dry Milk

Styrofoam Plates

Plastic Forks/Spoons

Pasta

New Hope News

Sunday School—This Sunday, the adult class will study 1 Peter.

VBS—Will be the week of July 15-18. Make your plans accordingly!

Pray For:

Lynn Meyer & Christine Dyer

Russell Mabry

John L. Wright

Links

Does child sponsorship work?

Contact of Southeast Tennessee has closed its lines

Take a guess at the most highlighted verse in the Bible.

As we delve into summer, this is a helpful piece on the dangers of drowning

Building a Missional Family

An awesome way to brighten a miserable experience

Apparently, it's good to put the baby in a box

Keith's Random Thoughts

D-Day was 69 years ago today. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the beaches in Normandy. They are peaceful, serene locations, a far cry from the violent chaos that descended upon them on June 6, 1944. At the top of the cliffs there is a cemetery, a place that breaks your heart as you read the names and dates on the white crosses. You can't help but wonder what might have become of these young men had they not given their lives for their cause.

Standing on the beach, you look up toward the cliffs, and you wonder how in the world they ever ascended those heights. You wonder at the courage that must have coursed through the veins of those who charged forward. You marvel at the fear that must have overtaken many in the moments leading up to the lowering of the doors of their landing crafts. It is an imposing place, and the fact that D-Day led to the defeat of the dug-in German troops is amazing when you consider the obstacles that had to be overcome.

D-Day is not something I could have achieved on my own. It required the sacrifice of many others in order to overcome a powerful enemy. Without it, my life today would be very different. I don't know how, but I am certain this world would be a different place.

So how do I live in reflection of this event?

I think the best way to reflect gratitude is to strive for the same ideals that drove the D-Day invasion. British, American & Canadian forces stormed those beaches in an effort to liberate Europe from an overpowering foe, one intent on destruction and domination. They did not invade in the hopes of conquering Europe, but of setting it free to determine its own future. The best way I can honor their sacrifice, I believe, is to strive for my own life to be useful to others, recognizing the powers at work in the world that seek to dominate and destroy and working to free others from these powers. This entails sponsoring children through World Vision to help set them free from the powers of poverty. It may mean joining in with the fight against trafficking, or striving to feed the hungry or help minorities obtain equal rights. It might mean something different for each of us, but remembering the sacrifice others made should change the way we see our own lives, that we live not for ourselves, but to benefit others. There is a greater good.

As a Christian, the sacrifice of Christ should drive me to examine my own motives. Am I living out of selflessness, or am I motivated to strive for peace and prosperity only in my own little kingdom? Do I build up others, or stride over them when the need arises? Christ loved at cost to himself. Am I willing to let the needs of others infringe upon my life?

These are hard questions, ones that I often avoid. But the more they are asked, the more I must wrestle with them. The more I wrestle, the more I recognize the truth that it is God's Kingdom I am called to serve, rather than my own.

Text for this Sunday

Romans 1:8-12

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world. For God, whom I serve with my spirit by announcing the gospel of his Son, is my witness that without ceasing I remember you always in my prayers, asking that by God’s will I may somehow at last succeed in coming to you. For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— or rather so that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.

NewHopeChattanooga.org

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To whom else?

  "Lord, to whom else shall we go?"

  It's the question Peter asks Jesus in the 6th chapter of John, when Jesus is asking the disciples if they will abandon him in the face of difficult teachings.

  It's the same question that stands before us today.

  In the face of adversity, of fear, whom else can we turn to who reigns over sin and death?  Whom else has power that is greater than the wind and the waves?  Is there another under whose wings we can take shelter and trust that whatever in this world shakes and quakes, we can still cling to the hope of the God who has triumphed over every other power?  Is there another who will dance triumphantly upon the grave of death at the end of time?  Is there another who needs no sun, because he himself is light?

  When we look deep into our own souls and recognize the sin within, is there another who we can say will love us unconditionally, who knows the depths of our own brokenness and seeks our redemption anyway?  Is there another who will wade into the dark night of the soul with us, confidant that the broken pieces of our lives can be put back together again?  Is there another who has experience the complete rejection of humanity and died on their behalf anyway?  Whom else can respond with such infinite grace to the reality of our own fallen humanity?

  When we recognize how powerless we are to overcome the impact of sin on our lives, whom else can send his Spirit to do what we cannot do, to redeem what we cannot redeem, to heal what we cannot heal, and to transform what we cannot change?

  Each and every day of my life, from the moment my eyes meet the tender first lights of the morning to the last thought I have before I drift into the security of slumber, I am bombarded with temptation to find mortal pleasure and place my heart's trust in the things of this world.  The messages come from without and within, and I am unable (and often unwilling) to resist them all.  I fall, and when I recognize the hurdle on which I have tripped and vow not to make that mistake again, I often discover new pitfalls before returning to the same old haunts.  I turn to many other false gods and false promises.

  But ultimately, I know and trust that there is only one to whom I belong.  There is no one else to whom I wish to go.  There is no one else who has the same power, and there is no one else who can love me so.  Only one promises me abundant life, and while the conditions of discipleship are exacting, I trust in the one who promises life to those willing to take up his yoke.

Guns, Germs & Steel

  I recently finished Jared Diamond's excellent Guns, Germs & Steel.  When I purchased it, I had thought it was a recently released blockbuster when, in fact, it actually came out last millennium, back in 1999 when we all thought the world was going to end because our computers wouldn't be able to function in the year 2000.  That seems like a really long time ago.  (National Geographic did a series on it a bit more recently, and the website is still up.)

  The book attempts to tackle the question of why humans developed the way we did.  Why did some cultures, such as the Europeans, develop technology and race around the world, conquering other civilizations using their guns, germs and steel?  Why were the conquered civilizations not the ones building ships to conquer Europe?  Why didn't germs to which Native Americans have immunity wipe out the first settlers?

  It's easy to attribute such success to the individuals that made up the societies.  We can assume that because some societies didn't develop technology at the same pace that they are less intelligent or inferior beings.  But Diamond demonstrates that the reasons society developed at different speeds has more to do with the available plant and animal species that surrounded them than intrinsic abilities.  Had the original Europeans been in North America while the Native Americans were in Europe, Diamond argues, world history might be very similar, owing to the environment of Europe versus North America.

  What Diamond is proposing is that things are far more complicated than they seem, and there are reasons societies are the way they are.  The Africans couldn't control the fact that they got the rhinoceros and hippopotamus while the Europeans and Asians had horses and cattle.  This shaped far more of history than we might initially believe.  History is complicated.

  What this teaches me, as someone trying to learn about other people, is that things are complicated.  They are usually far deeper than we believe, and the reason we are the way we are often has its roots deep within us.  I might never follow the rabbit trail deep enough to understand fully many of my attributes.  Many aspects that make me who I am are beyond my control.  The same is true of others.

  Diamond teaches me to be patient.  Guns, Germs & Steel is a lesson that we all wander our path of life filled with complicated histories that have shaped who we are today.  To know someone deeply takes a lifetime's worth of effort and love, and it is not a thing to be done casually, carelessly.  There are reasons we act the way we do, and to make sweeping assumptions about large communities can be a dangerous thing, because we often don't fully see the entire picture.

  I trust that God understands this all.  I trust that God, who stands above and outside of time and space can grasp the enormity of each and every complex situation, and I trust God's love, because he enters into our time and space and loves us all the same.  May we endeavor to love as deeply, despite our limitations, and trust that one day we will see on a wider plane. and we will understand beauty all the more.

More Like Jesus: Crucified & Risen (Sermon for 5/26/2013)

Romans 6:1-14

  What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

  For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

  Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

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Let’s be honest—uncertainty is hard for us.  We like to be in control of things.  Fear, at the root of it, is the admission that we’re not in control.  I have a fear of heights, but it’s not really a fear of heights.  It’s a fear that whatever height I’m perched upon might somehow give way when I am upon it, leading to a fall to my death.  If you could guarantee that I wouldn’t fall from whatever perilous height we were talking about, I wouldn’t be afraid of it. 

When we’re not in control, our minds have a tendency to trend to the worst.  School ended this week, and whenever I think of the end of the school year I am forced to remember the end of 5^th and 6^th grades.  It was a bad two year run for me.  The last day of 5^th grade was supposed to be a celebration of leaving elementary school.  This was before they had graduations for absolutely everything—our day care even has graduation—so we were just going to spend the day playing.  Instead, we spent the day huddled in the school basement as a tornado passed by far too close.

Then, in 6^th grade, I spent the entire night before the last day of school terrified because I hadn’t bothered to do a book report on Anne Frank.  I don’t remember the exact details, but it was a hectic last week of school and I hadn’t bothered to do this report, and this led to me in bed in the middle of the night terrified that I was going to fail 6^th grade, stay in middle school forever and never make anything of my life.  We can safely say I carried this just a bit too far.  In both instances I was not in control, and I was scared.

We don’t have a lot of control in this life.  Often, things just happen.  I went to the dentist the other week and ended up having a biopsy done on something that was growing in my mouth.  I went from worrying about flossing to worrying about dying pretty quickly.  As it is, the biopsy was negative, so Rachel can stop looking for better options, but it doesn’t take much for us to realize how little control we have. 

The storms in Moore, Oklahoma are just another reminder to us of how little control we have.  They are terrifying, and every parent’s worst nightmare is being away from your kid and not being able to shield them from harm.  Just the pictures from Oklahoma are terrifying.  This is a mile wide tornado with winds of 200 mph that was on the ground for 22 miles.  It will make you feel pretty out of control pretty quickly.

In times like this, we look to the heavens and we wonder.  We know that God is in control, and so we wonder how and why all this happens.  We wonder what the big picture is, what the answers to our questions are.  We long for certainty and confidence with which to face our fears.

When we talk about baptism, I think it’s healthy for us to talk about fear and uncertainty, too.  Church isn’t a place where you aren’t allowed to be afraid.  We don’t tell the greeters at the door to turn away anyone with any fears.  We don’t look down on you because you’re uncertain.  What we can do is dive into the Biblical text and see what it teaches us about fear, to listen to its words about uncertainty, to learn about the root of our fears and look to the One who created us and who we believe is bigger and more powerful than anything we fear.

One of the best ways to defeat fear is through knowledge.  When we don’t know we’re afraid.

What’s scarier than a spider in front of you?

A spider that was just in front of you, but now that you can’t see.

You don’t know where it is.  That creates fear, because you imagine the worst.  When I learned that it’s incredibly rare to die from a spider bite, even a poisonous spider, my fear of spiders lessened.  When the doctor tells me that the disease I have isn’t that serious, my fear lessens.

So notice the tenor of Paul’s words here in Romans. 

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed.

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

Paul has confidence in his theology, and with good reason.  When Paul was converted on the Damascus Road, he received direct revelation from God.  God has given him the wisdom to write this.  God has revealed himself to Paul so that Paul might enlighten others.  In going blind, Paul had the eyes of his heart opened, and his knowledge now dispels the fear of others.

We all fear death in some way, shape or form.  This is the fear that finds us when we’re waiting on lab results.  This is the fear that lingers close in the middle of the night.  This is the fear that lurks in times of natural disasters.  We fear the end.

So what Paul is telling us here is that, in baptism, our understanding of death has changed.  In Christ’s death and resurrection, the landscape has completely changed.  Death no longer has power over us—rather, God has demonstrated his power over death.

So what happens in baptism?  We are joined with Christ’s death.  This is the awful, horrible scene at Calvary, when Christ endured pain and suffering that he did not deserve and died the death that we deserve.  What Paul is saying is that in baptism, that becomes our death, too.  We join in with him in his death, and what that means is that we, too, are dead to sin.  It doesn’t have power over us.  It doesn’t determine our fate.

Because we are joined into Christ’s resurrection, too.  Just as we are united with him in his death, we are united with him in resurrection, too.  In baptism, your eternal life has already begun!  You have already died, and therefore, you need not fear death.  And Paul says that we know this!

There is no uncertainty to fear.  There is no ambiguity about what we do when we are baptized—we know that we know that we know that our old self, the self caught up in the chains of sin, has been nailed to the cross to die.  We also know that we know that we know that Christ’s resurrection is for us, too.  We are free from sin and free for eternal life.  Paul says that whoever has died is free from sin.  And if we’re dead to sin, that means we’re alive to God.  We have been buried, and now we truly live.

So each and every one of you who has been baptized has died.  On the cross, Christ died the death you deserved, and you joined in with him in your baptism.  Then, when Christ was raised from the dead, you, too, walked out of that tomb into new life. 

So you don’t have to fear death.  You’ve already been there.  You can’t go back.

What now? 

Paul closes out with a little paragraph that starts with the word ‘therefore’.  This is what should follow, Paul says.  You shouldn’t ever be comfortable with sin—don’t let it in.  Don’t let sin guide you to places God doesn’t want you to go.  You have been saved from eternal death—let your life reflect your gratitude to God.  Be an instrument of righteousness.  You are under grace.  Let grace guide your steps.  Follow God’s will, not out of fear, but in gratitude.  Let hope and wonder and worship lead you.  Give your life back to God and offer yourself to your neighbor.

Live in the joy of the empty tomb, rather than in fear of the death that once lurked within.  Death has been destroyed.  In baptism, you have been raised to eternal life.

Thanks be to God.

Let us pray